'Ambrosial odor'

A sugar shack in late winter or early spring, when maple syrup is made

“{An} ancient wooden shack {stands} among magnificent old maple trees. When we first came in sight of it, it looked as though it were on fire, for the steam from the boiling sap was pouring out through every crack. It was indeed a stirring place — men and boys hallooing in the woods as they chopped fuel for the fire, and drove the sledges down the mountainside with barrels of sap, or ran in and out of the sugarhouse. As we came nearer we caught the ambrosial odor of the steaming syrup.’’

— From The Countryman’s Year (1936), by Ray Standard Baker (1870-1946), writing as David Grayson. A journalist , historian and book author, he moved to Amherst., Mass, in 1910. He lived there for the rest of his life. Among his many jobs was serving as President Wilson’s press secretary during the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles, in 1919.

He wrote in the book:

“It is not limitation of life that plagues us. Life is not limited: it is the limitation of our awareness of life.”